International Journal of Digital Earth

Recent advances in geospatial sensors used in various technologies (e.g., satellites, smartphones, and UAVs) have resulted in unprecedented opportunities for innovative applications of Digital Earth. Conversely, the explosion in the volume, scale and variability of geospatial data has created new challenges which require novel digital earth systems to address these challenges. Discrete Global Grid System (DGGS) is one of the innovative approaches for implementing Digital Earth Systems. In DGGS, the globe is discretized into highly regular multiresolution cells using iterative refinements of an initial polyhedron. The underlying cells are uniquely indexed and used as a placeholder for any datasets associated with the corresponding regions on the globe.

The fundamental properties of DGGS make them a powerful and consistent framework for integrating and managing large multiscale geospatial datasets of varying resolutions. This is especially important in the context of Digital Earth, where working with multiresolution data that range from global to local scales is common. DGGS can effortlessly handle this variability, ensuring that data can be easily integrated and managed regardless of its resolution or scale. Furthermore, unlike the continuous foundations of GIS, the explicit and discrete nature of DGGS cell representations makes them an ideal framework for integrating data from geospatial sensors that measure various attributes using digital (discrete) technologies. This feature allows for more precise and accurate analyses and provides an explicit method to handle geospatial data uncertainty.

This Article Collection aims to cover recent trends in Discrete Global Grid Systems (DGGS) for developing Digital Earth Systems and their applications. The relevant subtopics for this collection are:

• Exploring Novel DGGS: includes the variations in refinements, indexing, cell types, projections, initial polyhedral and other aspects of DGGS design.
• Extensions of DGGS: includes 3D and 4D (spatiotemporal DGGS)
• DGGS in geospatial analysis, simulation and visualization includes advancements in algorithms and data structures for developing efficient DGGS operations required for accurate geospatial analysis, visualization, and simulation methods commonly needed for Digital Earth Systems.
• Supporting AI on DGGS: includes exploring novel methods to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques into DGGS design.
• DGGS Applications such as:
  • Location-based Marketplaces
  • Smart Forestry
  • Smart Agriculture
  • Environmental monitoring
  • Infrastructure management
  • Transportation
  • Smart Cities
  • Geospatial Asset Management and Risk Simulation
  • Location-based advertising, privacy and security.
• Policies and standards on DGGS: includes exploring policies and standards for using and implementing DGGS.
• DGGS software tools: includes exploring software tools for developing and implementing DGGS.

Guest Advisor Biography:

Faramarz F. Samavati is a Professor and the lead of GIV lab in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary. His research interests include Computer Graphics, Visualization, Digital Earth, and Geometric Modeling. http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~samavati/

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